Mandisa is a black woman living in the township Gugulethu near Cape Town. She has three children, each of them has a different father. At the time the novel takes place, she is married to Dwadwa, the father of her daughter Siziwe.
Mandisa is Mxolisi’s mother, he is the murderer of Amy Biehl. She functions as a first-person narrator and is the protagonist as she tells her story. Besides feeling sorry for Amy and her family, she also grieves a lot for her own family and feels an understanding for the politically motivated actions of her son.
She asks for forgiveness for the crime her son committed (though she knows there is no excuse for it) but also wonders why Amy would come to a black township and put herself at risk.
To depict the circumstances of Mxolisi’s life growing up, she goes back to her own childhood and teenage years in poverty and oppression by the Caucasian government. As she continues to picture Mxolisi’s childhood, he seems more and more like the victim. Although she cares a lot about her children and blames herself that Mxolisi had to grow up without a father figure and without her having much time for him, she still holds a grudge against him for ruining her chance to finish school and pursue a good job.
Mxolisi is Mandisa’s oldest son. He grew up in a very poor environment, constantly feeling the oppression of the Caucasian government and the police. Police violence is an almost daily occurrence in his neighbourhood which traumatizes him.
He seems to be a very sensitive and helpful person, he saved a girl from getting raped once and is willing to leave school to support the family. He is very loyal to his family, loves his mother and his siblings and wants to take care of them. He has experienced many losses in his life; his own father left him and Mandisa when he was just a toddler and his brother`s father, Lungile, whom he had a good connection with, has to leave the family to be a freedom fighter. He also loses two of his friends at a young age, they were killed by the police.
As he lacks a father figure, he seeks moral guidance in politics. He gets involved with political groups in school and soon becomes one of their leaders and the hero of the township. The political groups he is involved with tend to show very racist, violent and hateful behaviour, which influences Mxolisi. Suffering from the trauma he experienced in his childhood (general and personal police violence, lack of parental guidance, feeling of being neglected by his mother) and the feeling of safety in the mob that develops when Amy enters the township are the two main factors that led to Mxolisi’s crime.
Siziwe is Mandisa’s daughter and her youngest child. Mandisa is married to Dwadwa, Siziwe’s father. Siziwe is very young and has trouble understanding the situation and why the police came to their house. Although she is badly affected by the police raid, she is smart enough not to give them any information about Mxolisi’s whereabouts.
He is Mandisa's second son. His father Lungile was Mandisa's partner for a period of time. He cares for his brother but does not join him in his political actions, he is not part of the black riots.
Dwadwa is the father of Siziwe and Mandisa’s current partner. He does not like Mxolisi and is convinced that he is irresponsible and bad for the family. In Dwadwa’s opinion, Mxolisi should behave more obediently towards his mother and to Dwadwa himself, as he sees himself as the provider of the family.
China is only part of Mandisa’s flashbacks of her time as a teenager and young adult. He was her boyfriend and later her husband and he is Mxolisi’s father. Although he and Mandisa have a very loving, close relationship in the beginning, China starts behaving very ignorant as soon as he finds out about the pregnancy. He blames Mandisa for getting pregnant and is not ready to take up his responsibilities as a father. He feels his life is ruined by his son and by Mandisa living with him. He is so focused on his own misery that he completely ignores Mandisa’s feelings and does not see that she has a very hard time. In leaving the household and running away, he reaches the height of his irresponsibility. Looking back, his disappearance led Mandisa to make her first own, independent decision of starting over in a new home.
Amy is a white student from the USA. She came to South Africa for 11 months to go to university. She knows the Xhosa language, has some friends in black townships and she wants to learn more about their culture. She is an activist and supports black people in their fight against Apartheid and for equal elections. She seems to be very open and optimistic but is also seen as naive by Mandisa. In her opinion, she should not have come to Gugulethu as she knew people there were racist to some extent. Although she is with friends from the township, to whom she gave a ride home, they can`t protect her from the violent outburst of the black mob.